Monday, May 21, 2012

Remember all of a week ago how the House Republicans, particularly
Del. Bob Marshall, declared that "activists" were unfit for public
office because they harbor their own sinister agenda and simply can't be
trusted to uphold the Constitution?

Turns out, ladies and
gentlemen, they walk among us. Yessir, right here in Loudoun County.
That starts with L and rhymes with Hell. And . . . well . . . that's
as far as I've gotten. (Have to throw in a reference to a Broadway
musical given the recent comments, you know).

The point is that
I'm sure am glad I didn't go to the 10th CD convention yesterday
because I would have been labeled one of those *gasp* ACTIVISTS. And
by none other than new 10th CD chairman John Whitbeck who had this to say about
the convention and those with nothing better to do in their lives on a
beautiful Saturday that spend it cooped up in a high school auditorium:

"A great day that saw over900 activistsfrom across the 10th coming together at Tuscarora High School"

Good, God!! Activists!! Filthy activists!
Sorry, folks, but you're all now ineligible to hold any public post at
any level according to certain members of the Virginia House of
Delegates.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Yes, it’s more beating on the road sign issue, but this horse ain’t dead yet.

Somehow Fairfax County is comfortable having volunteers issue parking tickets,
which, to me, seems very, very hazardous to the volunteers’ safety both
in terms of being run over by a car or beaten up by an angry motorist.
Indeed, there’s a far greater risk to the volunteer, and by extension
to the county, in that program than one in which volunteers simply pick
up trash along the medians.

So to answer my own question as to why the difference, “It’s politics, politics, and more politics.”

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Remember
a year ago when the debate was raging over then-candidate David
Ramadan’s religious persuasion? Remember how the nuts of the
Anti-Sharia Task Force screamed that he couldn’t possibly represent
"true" Americans because he was a Muslim and the Muslim faith was
fundamentally at odds with an obligation to faithfully execute the laws
of Virginia and the United States? Remember how ridiculous all that
was?

Ramadan sure doesn’t.

In voting against the
confirmation of an openly homosexual nominee for a district court
judgeship on the basis of his sexual preference, or even his perceive
inability to apply Virginia laws on same sex marriages because of his
sexual preference, Ramadan is every bit as guilty of the bigotry and
prejudice of which he himself was the victim only one year ago.

Of all the “no” votes on the nominee, Ramadan’s stands out as the most hypocritical and disgusting of them all.

Now, also keep in mind
that the General District Court decides such weighty issues as
traffic tickets, simple assaults and other People's Court-type stuff.
Look, unless your defense to a speeding ticket is that you were late to a
pedicure, the fact that a district court judge is gay isn't never going to make a difference. (That's my attempt at Modern Family-style humor, by the way)

Psst. I think I just saw Marshall and Delgaudio sharing an appletini. Just sayin' . . .

There’s certainly an interesting debate raging over the Metro rail extension to Ashburn, particularly with the looming "opt-in" deadline. Just for the record, here’s how I see the arguments shaping up.
On the one hand,

Is it necessary today? No

Will it cost us money? Yes, but not clear how much

Will taxes go up? Probably, but, again, not clear how much

Will it drive billions of revenue to Loudoun? No.

Will it reduce traffic? Not much.

Other the other hand.

Will it bankrupt us? No.

Will it bring in some revenue? Yes, but not clear how much.

Are buses a realistic alternative? No.

Will it raise the value of my home? Probably, but not sure how much

Is it a generally a good thing to have (money aside)? Yes.

Will it lead to rampant crime? No.

Will it make some commutes better because they can take the train? Yes.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

For
Mother’s Day, my gift to the War Department was to be a new iphone.
After suffering through a crappy Samsung for almost two years, not to
mention two c-sections, I figure she’s earned one. Her renewal with
Verizon Wireless was due on June 1, so I asked the Verizon Wireless
store to allow me the upgrade price two weeks early so I could surprise
her on Mother’s Day.

But nooo. Request denied. I even went to a
couple different Verizon Wireless stores, but got the same answer: full
price $650 instead of the $200 upgrade price, even after the
explanation yada yada. I could not believe just how poor the customer
service was. All for a matter of two weeks.

Then it all came
back to me. Verizon is still very much the “phone company” of old,
right down to Ernestine’s famous tag line, “We don’t care. We don’t
have to. We're the phone company.”

Thursday, May 10, 2012

You may recall my earlier post about
the media attention given the 2% of the bills this General Assembly
session dealing with divisive social issues and how the media
effectively ignored the achievements in that other 98%. While I asked
for examples of the achievements in that 98%, the discussion really
didn't get too far. Well, now that the legislative session is over and
the governor has signed pretty much all the bills he's going to sign, it
is a bit clearer who in Richmond is really doing the work to revive the Virginia economy.

It sure is not worthless, Loudoun-hating liberal Barbara Favola. Talk about social agendas. Favola was the chief patron of bills
to increase the gas tax, increase gun regulation and make it easier for
convicted drug dealers to get public assistance. Not surprisingly,
they all failed. In fact, only one of her bills made it through at all
(an uncontroversial bill allowing towns to acquire property through a
voluntary sale).

Extremists at the other end of the political spectrum didn’t do much to help the economy either. Dick Black, for example, was chief patron of a variety of politically-popular-but-economically-irrelevant bills such
as immigration inquiry upon arrest, homeschooling, Sunday hunting and
the pandemic of the week, Lyme disease. Like Favola, he did absolutely
nothing to move the economy, create job opportunities or bring
businesses to the state.

Then there’s Barbara Comstock, a true
unsung hero of this legislative session. She quietly did the (boring)
stuff that must be done to keep Virginia competitive. As just a few
examples, she sponsored, and more importantly got through to the governor’s desk, bills that cut taxes
on data centers making Virginia more attractive for employers with
high-density jobs; limited union control of public works projects;
streamlined government agency reporting; and extended the telework tax
credit. That betters our economy. That makes good jobs possible. That keeps Virginia competitive.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

My daily commute along the Dulles Toll Road has been much, much more
manageable lately. So clear that, thankfully, I run the risk of
getting a speeding ticket most days. On the other hand, my alternate
route, Route 7 through Great Falls, has remained as crowded as ever.

While
the quicker drive on the Toll Road, could be attributable to completion
of portions of construction of the Silver Line, a report shows that in
the first quarter of 2012, traffic on the Dulles Toll Road was 1% lowerover
the same period last year. That decline coincides with a 25 cent
increase in the toll at the main toll plaza, effectively following
elementary economic theory - the higher the tolls, the fewer the
drivers.

Given that absolutely nothing else is working to reduce
traffic in this area, I am all for higher tolls on the Dulles Toll Road.
Call me an elitist pig, but I would gladly pay another $1-2 per day
to cut my round trip commute time by 10-20 minutes. In fact, those
tolls would probably be less than the taxes I’d pay for construction of
new roads and there’s a far more direct effect on my own commute. In short, the higher the tolls, the fewer crappy drivers in my life.

Count me in!

UPDATED at 9:30 on 5/8: Courtesy of David Dickinson, it looks like I have more to look forward to. MWAA plans toll increases that will decrease toll road usage by 18% next year alone! Woo hoo.

The GA Dems' continuing and groundless objection to very, very basic
and non-intrusive voter ID laws continues to astound me, particularly in
light of 38 actual CONVICTIONS for
voter fraud in the 2008 alone and nearly 200 other cases where
authorities believed a crime had occurred but the cases were not
prosecuted.

Look, guys, if you need the votes of convicts to win elections, you really should rethink your message.